At 15.43hrs this snowy afternoon, whilst still present at Incident 17/2016 at Whitefield, we were paged by NWAS (Cumbria and Lancashire) Broughton EOC, to respond to assist with an incident at Prestolee, Bolton.

A woman walker, aged 45, had fractured her ankle, whilst walking in the company of her husband, alongside the tow path of the now disused Bolton Bury Canal.

The call was answered at the scene of the previous incident, by team member Mike Marsh, who collected details and mobilised our response which saw team members responding from the still on going Incident 17 at Whitefield, to render assistance to the injured woman.

Our first arriving members were in our Incident Control Vehicle, and met at circa 16.06hrs with informants, including the injured woman’s husband, who guided team members Gillian Leigh, Tony Dawson and our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE to arrive at the incident scene.

Here other passing members of the public, including a first aider, had already started to tend to the injured woman, including placing her on a sledge to keep her out of the wet mud and snow on the towpath, whilst others had placed blankets around and on her to protect her from the cold.

With more members quickly arriving, pain relief including administering Entonox and drugs to relieve her pain and distress was undertaken, and her suspected and very painful ankle fracture was splinted.

By 16.45hrs our stretcher evacuation had commenced, with the injured woman being placed in to the responding NWAS Emergency Ambulance at 16.55hrs, and then onwards to Royal Bolton Hospital.

At 17.11hrs this incident was completed on scene.

It must be stated that the large amount of dog excrement on this section of canal towpath, made worse by mud and snow, carried a great contamination risk, and at the conclusion of this incident, our stretcher had to be thoroughly jet washed and scrubbed, with both of our casualty bags used on scene, having to be carefully washed.

Thanks are due to the many members of the local community who aided this woman, prior to and during our involvement.

This incident site was very close to the area of the Prestolee Boxing Day 2016 flooding incident we attended, and many of the members of the public present on scene, commented with thanks on our involvement at the flooding incident.

At the end of this incident, we returned, after completing three consecutive call outs, to our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ to wash and clean our vehicles and equipment used on the three calls, this was hampered on this very wet and cold evening by a power cut that had effected our Base / HQ, and so we had to quickly improvise, something we seem very adept at doing! (Thanks to GMFRS Bolton Central Fire Station for letting us jet wash our stretcher, to Geoff Seddon and Garry Rhodes for taking home two very dirty contaminated casualty bags to be washed, and for other team members including Nigel Booth and Alistair Greenough, for putting back in to our vehicles team kit once it had dried)

Bolton MRT on Twitter

We are recruiting! Have you got what it takes to become a volunteer member of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team. Operational membership recruitment for our 2019 intake is now open.
For more information please see the attached link:-
boltonmrt.org.uk/about-us/mem…pic.twitter.com/4krIj5Yw0c

What a day! Great running everyone! Huge thanks to everyone involved in making the day a success! Special Thanks to @BoltonMRT for supporting the event too! :) results up tomo avo! pic.twitter.com/Z6vK6YaqWf

On New Year's Eve, Assistant Team Leader Mark Scott was surprised and delighted to be given a cheque donation for BMRT of £150 by his friend Sarah Horan of Horwich. Thank you, Sarah, that's very generous and much appreciated!

As 2018 draws to a close, it’s also the end of our 50th Anniversary Year. A huge thank you to everyone that has supported us over the years, especially in 2018. It’s been special year for us and we can’t thank you enough! Happy New Year and hope you all have a fantastic 2019 pic.twitter.com/e0OSv0Bid1

We're thrilled to announce that we've been selected to receive a grant for £13,118.85 from @transportgovuk for essential water rescue equipment, following a bid for funding earlier this year. More info here: m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…